Dunleavy fails to appoint replacement for Rubenstein on Permanent Fund

The Permanent Fund trustees are responsible for the most important task in state government—overseeing the largest financial institution in Alaska.

A six-member volunteer board is not sufficient for the job. But it’s been a five-member board since July because of inaction by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Gabrielle Rubenstein, whose behavior prompted corporation executives to privately warn about her conflicts of interest, quit the board July 24, ending the internal examination of her alarming behavior.

“As we all know she has made dozens upon dozens of investment manager referrals in her 18 months on the APFC board,” Permanent Fund Chief Investment Officer Marcus Frampton wrote in January. “Many of these have been in the private credit space and my team has declined to pursue all of them.”

Rubenstein, speaking through a public relations employee working for her father, billionaire David Rubenstein, claimed she made about 20 investment referrals to fund employees. She claimed that it was a lie that she tried to have a corporation employee fired and that she set up a meeting between her dad and staff of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.

Dunleavy has failed to appoint a replacement for Rubenstein, which leaves the trustees with five members. Two of those members—Adam Crum and Ryan Anderson—are employees of Dunleavy.

A third member, Craig Richards, has worked for Dunleavy in various capacities. He has had no-bid contracts as statehood defense coordinator for the last year. He has been getting $10,000 a month most recently under a contract that ended in September.

A fourth member is a former Dunleavy employee, Jason Brune, who ascended to chair of the trustees in July in what Craig Richards accurately called a coup.

The fifth member is Ethan Schutt, who is not a Dunleavy employee or former employee.

Rubenstein, recruited by Dunleavy to serve as a trustee, filled one of the four slots reserved for the public.

The last time that Dunleavy appointed a so-called “public member” to the trustees was in 2023. It took no time at all because he did not appoint a public member and there was no search.

Brune quit his state job as Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner effective August 20, 2023. He was serving at the time as one of two Dunleavy commissioners on the trustees.

Two days after his resignation took effect, on August 22, 2023, Dunleavy appointed Brune to a four-year term on the trustees.

Dunleavy shows such little regard for encouraging public participation that his office of Board and Commissions still claims that Gabrielle Rubenstein is a member of the Permanent Fund board of trustees and that her term continues until next July.

The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation is the most important financial institution in Alaska. The flaws in the leadership structure are on full display, with all the power granted to a disconnected governor, still hoping Trump will give him a way out.

The process of selecting trustees for the fund needs to change. Only the Legislature can do that.

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